Artist’s Description

In light of Lopoddity’s latest journal I decided to upload my humanized interpretation of the Mane 6 as well as Spike. I have SO many humanized drafts sitting around that I never uploaded. It’s been something I’ve wanted to do for a while, but also something I’ve been scared to do.

I LOVE seeing how other people interpret these characters, but usually when they’re portrayed as people of color, there are ignorant comments, questions demanding justification for why they are the color they are and sometimes just straight up racist comments. In the past I’ve only drawn the characters as white just to avoid the drama, which worked, but isn’t right. I shouldn’t have to be scared to draw the characters how I see them and how I enjoy drawing them. And if people can make all of them white without any justification, then I should be able to give them some color without justification also.

The lack of representation of colored people in the media (particularly children’s media) is sad. It’s getting much, much better, but before, it felt like it was the norm to just not have them there. Growing up only seeing white people in movies and animated films was normal and it was okay. I’d make all the characters I drew white too and that was fine. But I remember seeing Princess Tiana in the previews for Princess and the Frog and being SO excited that there was a princess who had the same skin color as me, wore their hair like me (and even had a similar name to me lol). It just felt so amazing! And because I live in Hawaii, when Moana was announced, I got to see just how excited all the Pacific Islanders who live around me were to see someone like them being the hero of a Disney movie (it was especially great to see little Hawaiian girls cheering when seeing the Moana trailer for the first time in theaters). It’s rare that you get to see black main protagonists but it’s even more rare to see Asians or Latinos or any minority for that matter. But it shouldn’t be like that. It should be normal. There are so many people of color around the world. It’s not like we don’t exist.

SO, with that, these are my Humanized Mane 6 and Spike~

Aj is Caucasian

Rainbow is Filipino

Rarity is European/Afro-Caribbean

Spike is Japanese

Twilight is Indian

Pinkie is African American

Fluttershy is Middle Eastern

These are my interpretations. Not all of you will agree with it, and that’s fine~ There are plenty other people with different interpretations that might fit your idea of what they look like. Either way, I hope you enjoy the art